On Fri, May 29, 2009 at 8:59 PM, <virgins...@vfemail.net> wrote: > To drive the point home... the DTV transition began in February, and > Comcast is *still* broadcasting commercials (on analog cable, mind > you) urging people to "be ready" for the end of the transition in > June.
Speaking of misleading.... The DTV transition didn't "begin" in February 2009. It's been a long, drawn-out process, going back years. Analog cut-offs happened in 2008 in some areas. But the nation-wide analog cut-off date was scheduled for 31 Dec *2006*[1]. For a few years, it was scheduled for 17 Feb 2009[2]. It was then postponed again (in 2009), to 12 June 2009. Special permission was then required to cut-off analog broadcasts in Feb 2009; about 36% of OTA broadcast operators have done so.[3] [1] http://www.dtv.gov/DTVAct.pdf [2] ibid [3] http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-288641A1.pdf Practically all of the "commercials" I've seen have either been (1) public service announcements mandated by government or (2) from OTA broadcast operators. Comcast is legally prohibited from interfering with either. But hey, by all means, go on blaming Comcast for everything. I hear they started the Iraq war, too. (Note that I'm not saying Comcast isn't a an evil, money-grubbing organization. They are. But I dislike untruths of all kinds.) > And, don't forget... Comcast's new TOS declare that their cable boxes, > as well as ALL software and settings on them, are Comcast "property". This is not new. They've *always* been cable company property. That's why you have to rent them, and you get billed if you don't return them if you cancel service. Owning your own cable box used to be *illegal*. It wasn't until CableCARDs were mandated by the FCC that you even had the option of owning your own cable decoder. Even then, the CableCARD's remain the property of the cable operator. > IIRC, the TOS even grant Comcast explicit permission to come into your home > and > physically change out cards in their CPE. (No joke!) This is also not new. Comcast also owns the cable wire up to a certain point; I forget where. The telephone company owns the wiring in your house up to the Network Interface Device, and the NID itself. The power company owns the wiring up to the attachment point. They also own the meter; and opening the meter box is regulated. All three companies have the legal right and responsibility to maintain the infrastructure they own. Sorry if you weren't paying attention before now. > Because the digital boxes have channels back to Comcast, and they can > change set-top software at will, it's possible for Comcast to track > subscriber viewing habits. Indeed. I know TiVo does the same thing with their stuff, and has for years. If you're worried about Comcast, I would advise using a third-party tuner that accepts CableCARDs. The current generation of CableCARD's can't send data back to Comcast, I believe. However, once the cable industry gets around to agreement on/deployment of CableCARD 2.0, which enables video-on-demand and pay-per-view, viewer monitoring may become possible. > Warrantless set-top surveillance, anyone? Only the government is supposed to have a warrant to watch you. And apparently, they don't always bother even then... > Selling less and charging more for it has been this > company's mantra since... well, when did they become "Comcast"? That's also wrong. They've been like this since *at least* back to when they were Continental Cablevision. ;-) > No, I'm afraid I'll have to pass. I'm plenty "ready" with my analog > tuner card, thank you! It's always been an inevitability that everything is eventually going to migrate to digital; it's only a question of "when". I had been hearing thet CATV analog cut-off's were still a few years away; my question was just about Comcast accelerating their schedule, not that it was happening. If you dislike Comcast (and I don't blame you for doing so; they're a lousy company to deal with, even if some of your claims are false), I would suggest sticking with OTA signals, where are unencrypted, one-way, cannot be monitored, and "free". You'll have to use digital tuners starting 12 June, of course. I've got an PCHDTV HD-5500 I'm looking to sell... -- Ben _______________________________________________ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
